Decision ‘08

Honorable Mention, 2006 Jackass Of The Year: Dennis Hastert

In a year when the Republicans lost their congressional majority in both houses, there is surely plenty of blame to go around (more on this one later). The President himself can’t escape blame, because of his unpopularity and his inability to sell the war in Iraq to the public. Nor can reputed mastermind Karl Rove, who seemed to be in denial as the election neared and all signs pointed to a rout.

Yet it was Hastert who stood out on the House side, for two reasons: one, his tepid leadership and lackluster record of accomplishment (I mean, what exactly HAS the Republican house accomplished in the last two years, anyway?) gave Republican congressional candidates relatively little to crow about, and two, his ‘leadership’ in the Mark Foley affair was one of the final nails in the Republican coffin.

Now, I count myself among those who think the Mark Foley matter was essentially a private affair blown up to gargantuan proportions by Democratic activists who knew of the story and sat on it until the political timing was right (so much for concern for the pages). Yet it is undeniable that Hastert handled the matter poorly and was a good deal less proactive than he should have been when warning signs presented themselves.

With friends like this, the Republicans needed no enemies…

One Response to “Honorable Mention, 2006 Jackass Of The Year: Dennis Hastert”

1 Diggers Realm Says:
January 6th, 2007 at 4:12 am
Around The Blogosphere And Open Trackback #37: Server Outage Edition

The “Server Outage” edition in the continuing saga of interesting and thought provoking news from around the web. After this weeks server outage I’m going to roundup some stories I, and you, may have missed. This is a long one…